Covid- Health Ministry writes to five states including Karnataka on rising cases

The Union Health Ministry on Friday alerted Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Maharashtra on a fresh rise of Covid-19 cases and weekly positivity in some of the districts over the last one week.

The states have been asked to maintain a strict watch and take preemptive action if required to control any emerging spread of infection.

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The sharpest rise has been seen in six Maharashtra districts including Mumbai Suburban, which recorded 2,330 fresh Covid-19 cases between May 27 and June 2.

In five of the six Maharashtra districts – Mumbai Suburban, Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar – the number of cases registered this week is twice compared to the previous week. In Pune, the rise is 1.27 times. There is a similar rise in weekly positivity numbers.

In Karnataka, Bengaluru Urban recorded an increase of 1,063 cases in the same week and 1.84 per cent positivity whereas Chennai and Chengalpattu districts witnessed more than 3 per cent test positivity.

Kerala too reported a steep increase in weekly new cases from 4,139 in the week ending on May 27 to 6,556 in the week ending on June 3, accounting for more than 31 per cent new cases recorded in India. The positivity rate rose from 5.2 per cent to 7.8 per cent between the two weeks.

With a rise in Covid cases in 11 out of 14 districts of Kerala, the Union Health Ministry described the Kerala situation as a “matter of concern” that required focused intervention.

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Barring Ernakulam, Bengaluru Urban and Mumbai Suburban, the number of new cases in all other districts are in the hundreds.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan advised the state to monitor influenza-like illnesses (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) cases in all health facilities on a regular basis for detecting early warning signals on the spread of infection.

Genomic sequencing of samples from international passengers, sentinel sites (identified health facilities) and local clusters of cases would be continued.

More than 4,000 fresh cases were reported on Thursday after a gap of two months, even though nearly 90 per cent of Indian adults are now fully vaccinated.